1. Pixies | Dig For FireThis is the Pixies (one of my favorite bands) doing 80’s Mega Pop (one of my favorite styles). The drums on this song sound huge, and come in in such a cool abrupt way. Great riff, great hook. Really cool imagery in the lyrics too. This is a very regular listen for me.

2. Future Islands | Vireo’s EyeFuture Islands is the band I would want to play at my birthday party. This guy sings like Beast from X-Men would. The chorus hook is perfect, the bass line is totally tense, it’s just just really hard to stop listening to this song.

3. Daughters | Recorded Inside A PyramidI’ve never heard anything else like this album. It’s like Heavy Circus music, and somehow almost like Hip Hop. I also love listening to Daughters on the train to/from work in my work clothes; it’s like being scuzzy metal Superman walking around as Clark Kent.

4. Don Caballero | Fire Back About Your New Baby’s SexI love Don Caballero so much. I listen to American Don all the time, and have borrowed so much from the guitar playing. It’s just so musical and pretty, and the instruments work and weave so well together. The straight open hi hat intro needs to be in more songs.

5. Abe Vigoda | Dead City/Waste WildernessI think we all know that this band rules. It seems like it would be really fun to play in this band. I guess I like them a lot because of how much they remind me of Cap’n Jazz (one of my all time favorites), but they’re really cool in their own right. It’s like really challenging, creative Garage Punk.

6. Delicate Steve | Sugar SplashThese guys played a party at our house last summer and it was amazing. As soon as I heard this band, they became an instant favorite of mine. This song seems like it’s from some foreign culture, but it actually doesn’t sound like anything from anywhere. Even though I didn’t meet Steve until after this album was finished, I feel like the music was made with me in mind.

7. John Frusciante | Untitled #6I take more from John Frusciante’s playing than from any other source. Zach first played this for me in high school and I still listen to it all the time.

8. No Age | GlitterI’ve been listening to this a lot. I didn’t think I would like No Age based on what I heard about them, but these hooks are seriously good. All the Lo-Fi/Noise stuff is totally secondary; this would be an awesome song no matter what the production style. This song is a total upper/downer; ends up feeling really cool.

9. Saetia | Some Natures Catch No PlaguesThis is a really formative song for me, and I think for the whole band. We talk about Saetia all the time. This was one of the first songs I heard that really mixed heavy music with pretty music, and wasn’t just juxtaposing styles next to each other, and wasn’t stupid or overdone. There’s still nothing quite like this song.

10. Fang Island | Careful CrossersEvery guitar player in the World should like this band. I was listening to them a lot when we were finishing our album, and you can hear it on a few of the dual guitar cheese parts we did. I kept doing more and more of it as the recording process went on. Fang Island ended up being a real last-minute added influence on our album.

SIDE B | by Matthew Livick

1. Peter Bjorn And John | LiesI’m forever stuck with this band. This is one of those songs that doesn’t change a thing but reminds you that it's OK to feel good.

2. Wye Oak | Holy HolyI’ve never heard a voice like Jenn Wasner’s. Although I’m not sure most people would make that distinction, every time I hear this song I grit my teeth because I want to hear more of it... Which I can only solve by turning it up louder. Also, the chorus melody is so bizarre and beautiful I’ve had it stuck in my head for days at a time.

3. Converge | Dark HorseThese days it is difficult to successfully pull off double-kicks in aggressive music without sounding like an asshole. Somehow, however, when Converge does it, I can only think to myself Of course... That’s of course what you would play there... I always catch myself looping the mosh-part on the train mouthing Dark horse ride onward!

4. John Maus | BelieverWhat’s interesting about this is that I can’t get into the rest of the record. This song however has been stuck with me since I heard it, though. Something about this reminds me of a Bruce Springsteen song - it's probably the line Baby, you and me all across the world. Songs like this bring on that youthful nostalgia that sets off our mid-twenties nervous breakdown.

5. Pantha Du Prince | AbglanzThis makes me want to roam around with my nighttime friends and get into moderate amounts of trouble.

6. I Break Horses | Winter BeatsIf you’ve ever seen Close Encounters of the Third Kind you’ll know exactly where this is going. Think about that arpeggiated melody with a whole song written around it. This delivers me to Devil’s Tower to hang with the visitors but maybe also do a bunch of E.

7. Wild Beasts | Loop The LoopI love when it takes extra attention to detail to understand when a song or a record is classic. This was a perfect example of this for me. No one out there is making music quite like these guys. This record came out just as we were finishing our record and it really provided an amazing relief and juxtaposition to what I was working on day in and out. Musically, what does it for me on this song and the record as a whole is the ego-less, calculated drumming and rhythm put down by Chris Talbot.

8. Peter Gabriel | In Your EyesI mostly just watch the VH1 Classic performance/music video in Toronto of this. At the end of the day, this is probably one of my favorite songs ever and I mostly just want to be Youssou N’Dour and be having the time of my life.

9. Autre Ne Veut | Drama Cum DramaThis song is very reassuring to me. No exceptional or complicated programming, no original patches or drum banks, no gimmicks. The important element of this is the songwriting; which to me should always come first. Its filled with hooks and melody that stick with you. My favorite part is definitely the outro vocal melody that he struggles to push into the falcetto but refuses to back away from.

10. M83 | Midnight CityOne observation I’ve made about many of Anthony Gonzalez’ best tracks is there are no lyrics in the chorus. It’s amazing to be able to make a Pop song where this happens seemlessly and no one seems to notice. I also love how he programs one drum fill per song and reuses it every time - this turns that 4 second moment into a refrain that you treat as it’s own melody.

SIDE C | by Zachary Smith

1. Bel Canto | Dewy FieldsCan't remember feeling so mystified by a thing as I was when I heard this. Bel Canto is the missing link for me. I like the melodramatic gong-y sounds that propel it along, and how Anelli Drecker's voice flies around in every direction at once the whole time.

2. Richie Havens | End Of The SeasonsYou could put this on as Vin Diesel or Jason Statham or whoever walks in slow motion away from a car as it explodes. Long live this Woodstock vet. Got me through the first year scrambling about in New York. I also like when people sing about the harbor.

3. Phil Ochs | Pleasures Of The HarborHeard this in big surround sound during the movie that came out about Phil recently. It was sort of an internal rallying cry for me working on our new record, soon your sailing will be over... like this intensive process that takes anywhere from a little to a lot out of you. Really actually perfect for a long day pounding dark & stormies on the your local yacht club's upper deck.

4. Penguin Cafe Orchestra | RosasolisWinter wonderland. Like kicking back at a ski lodge in the Alps with hot chocolate. Kids music for grownups. This is like taking refuge in some icy fantasy world. When my room flooded this was the haunted ice castle I stayed at.

5. Ecstatic Sunshine | ConchCaught bits and pieces of this band over years, was wildly psyched when I heard this one. Perfect, perfect, perfect. Each sound is trippy but grounded. Like somebody was determined to go to the White Lodge without breaking edge. Again I like interior landscapes of retreat.

6. Autre Ne Veut | New DepthSeeing him live at Shea Stadium about a month ago was the highlite of summer show-going. Such a good performer - campy, confrontational, and totally open. This song is ferocious and great.

7. Nguzunguzu | Wake SleepI love how clean this is - fresh air. Absolutely stately. I can see it: I've finally arrived at Hogwarts, and I go to my first class - which is Dumbledore talking about 20th Century classical music, and Zaha Hadid is next to me, claiming she is the reincarnation of Aaliyah. Their visuals are also breathtaking.

8. Inc. | SwearMy friend showed me this in a this will be your favorite and that's final way. Yep. People have latched onto the obvious sounds wrapped in this music but I hear Post-Minimalism as well. People harp on references easily and it's misguided. What's great about this band (and too) is how clearly it occupies its own space, and nothing else's.

9. Converge | Reap What You SowA thunderstruck piece of music. Like the first ten seconds of In Bloom but for two minutes. I made myself a loop of the chorus so I could hear it keep shredding into itself. This is like my late childhood/adolescence intersecting with my adult life. Like getting back from work listening to this vs. headphoning Jane Doe in study hall with a hoodie over my face.

10. John Martyn | AngelineClear, shiny, bottomless ocean vibe. He was a special guy. This is my favorite kind of a certain kind of song. Deep voice dude going to a weird liquid place. I felt like I needed more music like this around and dug through his discography on good faith until I found this one.